How to Customize a Model Train Layout

Customizing your layout is an ongoing process.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Extra Track
• Hobby Paintbrushes
• Hobby Paints
• Miniature Decals
• Miniature People
• Model Buildings
• Clean Rags
• Turpentine
• Clean Rags
• Modeling Clays

1. Get some model paint in white, black, gray and brown.

2. Get some modeling clay.

3. Get some dirt and some moss.

4. Go to the library and get a book on the history of trains or a particular train line.

5. Get some turpentine.

6. Mix the white paint with the turpentine until it looks cloudy.

7. Brush the white paint on the locomotive to make it look weathered.

8. Form the clay into topography around the tracks. Add moss and dirt around the layout as desired to create gulleys and hills.

9. Add decals to buildings to identify them. Spark plug stickers over a model gas station will look like a billboard, for example.

10. Go to the hobby shop.

11. Use the history book for your train line to buy decals that fit the train, including town names whenever possible. Be consistent. Try not to put a freight sticker on an Amtrak passenger car, for example. You want the scene to reflect real life.

12. If you want, paint small figures to look like people you know, and place them as passengers boarding the train at the station.

Tips & Warnings

• The more detail, the better.
• Too many stickers can be distracting. Let the cars themselves stand out more than the decorations.